This is my second sample from Steenberg’s Organic Teas and so far I have to say I have found them to be surprisingly good. This green tea is one of only 2 tea bag varieties that they have available currently. Their other teas are loose leaf varieties. These tea bags are individually packaged and contain a fairly typical looking leaf for a bag. According to their website, it is organic, Fairtrade green tea from Sri Lanka and the company spends 10% of the profits on social and environmental projects in the developing world. Based on my good experiences with Steenberg’s tea bags, I am actually quite anxious to try their loose leaf varieties.

The color and aroma of this green were pretty standard, but this tea was actually quite tasty. The flavor leaned more towards the basic vegetal green, but was much more impressive and fresh tasting than that found in most standard green tea bags. All in all, this is a good basic green tea packaged in convenient individually wrapped bags.

— To purchase Steenbergs Organic Green Tea, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular tea, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

The name of this herbal blend turns out to be incredibly descriptive. My sample contained fairly large pieces of peach and pineapple, but the aroma was all peach. It also contains lemon myrtle, chamomile, sunflower petals and rosehips. This doesn’t appear to be an herbal that is at all delicate in regards to brew time. I allowed mine to brew for 7-8 minutes and that seemed near perfect. The first sip was just as I had expected, sweet and peachy. I noticed a little bit of a pineapple essence in the aftertaste. No additional sweetener is required with this one as the peach is candied and provides a pleasant but not overwhelming sweetness on it’s own.

My local Teavana was my first real experience with loose leaf teas and they consistently come up with tasty new blends. One of my first herbals from them was a combination of their Egyptian Chamomile and Honeybush Vanilla, which has long been a favorite standby of mine for a relaxing cup before bed. I will be purchasing more of this to have on hand as a tranquility inducing alternate.

The World Tea Expo is the tea industry tradeshow, an exposition hall filled with hundreds of industry related booths. Most of the vendors are tea growers, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers presenting their products to retail business owners and buyers. When you first enter the fragrance of tea is intoxicating. There are more than 1000 teas on display and being brewed to sample. You get used to the smell of the tea within a few minutes. The air is so thick with tea that your olfactory sense adjusts. And after two full days of tasting, your taste buds can become a bit tired. So, when I say that I discovered a new tea near the end of the third day, it must have some exceptional qualities.

I was rushing back to my own booth with no plan to taste more teas …œ not during the last hour of the third day of Expo. The staff in the Stash Tea Booth was serving Decaf Pumpkin Spice. The aroma caught me as I passed. I certainly would not have sought out a bagged, decaf, flavored tea in the midst of world’s most prized artisan leaves. But the aroma stopped me cold. They had prepared the sample with milk …œ also a challenge to my intolerance of lactose. All of my judgmental criteria aside, I walked away with a handful of sample bags and have kept them in stock ever since.

Stash’s Decaf Pumpkin Spice keeps me from that piece of pie for dessert. It is also the flavor that most please the ladies in my critique group who could care less about my Ti Kwan Yin. It’s the favorite of my 4-year-old nephew and my 80-year-old mother. It’s the most popular flavor at the concession table I host for our high school choir concerts and when I serve tea at bookstore signings.

Stash produces a quality tea that I can proudly recommend and know that it is easily found on grocery store shelves and online. It’s great both hot and cold. With milk and sweetener or without. I’ve also experimented with the leaves as a baking ingredient. It infuses more color and flavor in my Kitchen Sink Cookies and is my mystery ingredient in Zucchini Bread.

It’s not my morning brew but it is always in stock in my tea cupboard. My friends remember and ask for it.

— To purchase Stash Decaf Pumpkin Spice, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular tea, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

I found a thread in the Teaviews forum by Lea. She mentioned that she created some blends for Adagio Teas. I glanced by it until I saw that she mentioned pineapple upside-down cake tea. So I decided to check out her blends on the Adagio website, fully intending to try the pineapple upside-down cake. Then I saw it: A peaches-n-cream rooibos blend she created. I fully admit I am obsessed with drinking flavored rooibos in the evenings. It’s caffeine-free and goes well with any flavor. I mean any flavor. But peach and vanilla? I was instantly intrigued. I ordered it immediately. My only worry was that it may have a hibiscus element to it. It doesn’t. Near as I can tell, it’s straight up peach, vanilla, and rooibos with nothing else to muck it up.

The fragrance of this tea is like gummy peach candy. It smells so sweet and delicious with a slight woodsy undertone thanks to the rooibos. I don’t smell much vanilla, but then again I’m focused on the peach. The dry blend looks like a typical rooibos with small red shreds and no large particles. It brews up into an extra red colored Ã¢â‚¬Å“red teaÃ¢â‚¬Â.

The taste is somewhat surprising. I expected a candy like peach taste based on the smell. It is more complex than I imagined. The rooibos dominates the palate followed by the vanilla. The peach arrives in a pleasant punch of flavor at the end and lingers. It is very silky and refreshing.

My father, who calls most of my tea Ã¢â‚¬Å“weirdÃ¢â‚¬Â and will only drink Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red, really liked this tea as well. So that is a big thumbs up as far as I’m concerned. I drank a whole pot myself in one evening!

This tea is a 10/10 due to taste, smell, and creativity! Thanks Lea!

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TeaGuys’ Caramel Green tea is an interesting blend that mixes sweet and savory flavors together. The name is a bit misleading, suggesting that one should expect green tea flavored with caramel. In truth, there is a lot more going on with this tea, as the ingredients listed include not only green tea and caramel, but also rooibos, cocoa beans, and marigold blossoms. Interestingly, the green tea base is described as actually being a blend of different Chinese green teas. However it also seems that there must have been some Japanese Gen Mai Cha mixed in, as there were definitely pieces of popped rice and popcorn mingling in my blend.

This tea instantly reminded me of SpecialTeas’ Vienna Winter Green tea, which is a big winner in my book. The green tea used as the base is extremely mild, so that one can barely taste even a hint of vegetal flavor. Given the sweet flavors added to this tea, a subtle base works best, as I imagine something that brewed up overly grassy or brothy would clash with the caramel and other flavors. While the tea was, overall, sweet and tasty, the caramel essence was just a bit off, in a way that is hard to describe. The caramel flavor fell short of what I expected. Instead of a rich and creamy caramel flavor, the flavor here was a bit bitter and almost fruity. A stronger and higher-quality caramel flavor would have really made this tea shine. I must admit that I much prefer SpecialTeas’ Vienna Winter Green over this blend. Additionally, one needs to be sure to brew an ample amount of leaves per cup of water, or else the tea comes out very weak. Overall, this tea was satisfactory, but I would not say it was superb.

— To purchase Tea Guys Green Caramel, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular tea, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

Coconut tea has always been among my all-time favorite tea selections. I have had coconut teas from at least four other vendors, and while I have enjoyed them all, my general conclusion had been along the lines of “you taste one coconut tea, you taste them all”. Enter Zhi Tea coconut assam to show me the errors of my thinking. This tea smells stronger and fresher than any coconut tea I have tasted. There are small pieces of coconut mixed in with the tea leaves. Zhi’s website also mentions that the coconut, like the tea itself, is organically grown. An instant nutty sweetness struck my nose and had me near salivating (but luckily I was able to control myself). The brewed tea is, in a word, divine. The coconut flavor is authentic (not a hint of artificial flavor here), and is just right in terms of its strength. What made this coconut tea so unique from other coconut tea offerings is that Zhi tea manages to perfectly capture the essence of toasted coconut, and it is that little special toasted flavor that really makes the difference. The tea is hearty, sweet, and delicious. The tea is perfectly sweet and enjoyable on its own, but the addition of milk and sugar made it a downright satisfying beverage that was hearty enough to satisfy my all-too-common cravings for something sweet. Zhi Tea knows how to make naturally-flavored teas that really quell a sweet-tooth such as mine (and trust me, that is no easy feat). The rich and malty assam base is perfect to bring out the sweet and nutty coconut flavor. I could continue with my ravings, but it should suffice to say that this tea rocks. Hands down, Zhi’s take on coconut tea is the best coconut tea I have had yet. I’ve only had two cups of this tea, and I am already addicted. Zhi, what have you done to me?

— To purchase Zhi Tea Coconut Assam, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular tea, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

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Teaviews.com is an online collective of tea lovers and reviewers from across the United States and Canada. All members receive free periodic shipments of high quality tea samples to taste and review on www.Teaviews.com.

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